 The theatre was a response to the enormous success of Thomas Barrasford's Royal Hippodrome Theatre (4,000 capacity, built 1902, demolished 1984) which stood a very short distance away; the Olympia never managed to meet the success of the Hippodrome, and never managed a profit.It is one of very few of its kind left in the country.Performing animals would appear in the auditorium by being lifted from the basement where they lived.